I attended a very informative permagarden workshop at the Jenoi Farmer Training Center, which is just across the river from where I live in Farafenni. This workshop was presented by Peter Jensen, who was sponsored by Water Charity and hosted by Gambia Rising and Peace Corps The Gambia. Peter is an Agroecology and Permagarden Training Specialist, and has spent the last two decades developing the… ....READ MORE | 1 Comment
This post will describe what my life is like when I’m home in Farafenni. I’ve been gone a lot recently, and travel again next week for a permagarden workshop, and I want to share my day to day routines at site. I am fortunate to have a comfortable living situation, a loving compound family, a good work assignment, and interesting people to relate to as I go about… ....READ MORE | 5 Comments
Once a year all the volunteers in The Gambia get together for an All Volunteer Conference (All-Vol). There were 100+ in attendance at Massembeh, including our program managers, the medical staff, the directors of finance, training, security and our new Country Directer – Megan Wilson. It was great to have everyone together and I met several PCVs that I hadn’t crossed paths with before. There is a lot… ....READ MORE | 5 Comments
I joined the new Media Team to help address the third Peace Corps goal: To help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans. There are nine team members from all five regions of the country, and our function will be to support other PCVs with photography, video clips, audio recordings and news releases when creating content for Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and other venues. I… ....READ MORE | 2 Comments
As I was researching The Gambia before leaving Oregon, I discovered that children’s books would be appreciated. I wasn’t sure how I would incorporate children’s books into my service as an agriculture volunteer, but I figured an opportunity would present itself. I asked, Carol Christ who is a coordinator for SMART (Start Making A Reader Today) an elementary school program I was volunteering with, to help me select… ....READ MORE | 3 Comments
My host mother, Fatou Dibba, was very excited to have her family together for the 2018 Gamo in Farafenni. Relatives from Kombo began arriving on Thursday, to be here for Friday prayers, and the Gamo on Saturday April 7. Gamo is an annual event that brings together Muslims from all walks of life for religious discourse and prayers. Huge crowds gather at Mosques to listen to recitations of the… ....READ MORE | 3 Comments
At the completion of training, we were driven to Soma, where we could get transportation to our various destinations. This was the first time I had made the river crossing solo, and although I was a bit apprehensive, I discovered my senior status was an advantage. I needed to take a jele-jele from Soma to the ferry, and then another jele-jele into Farafenni from the ferry… ....READ MORE | 9 Comments
The final week of IST (In Service Training) was packed full of events. One highlight was being able to visit my training village and spend time with my first host family. This compound has hosted many previous trainees, and I was very fortunate to have lived with such a warm and loving family. They allowed me the space to find my comfort zone in a… ....READ MORE | 2 Comments
The twenty agriculture volunteers stayed at the Peace Corps transit house in Kombo at the beginning of IST (in-service training) while we attended bee school, then we traveled to Massembeh for the rest of our classes. The 3 weeks of IST were focused on developing techniques to be successful working with our counterparts and communities during our time in service.
The Gambia is the fourth… ....READ MORE | 4 Comments
The first two days of the three weeks of in-service training were devoted to beekeeping at Komoo Kunda Bee Farm. This facility was originally started by a Norwegian music school over 30 years ago, and the buildings are all very unique. About a decade ago, the music school closed due to poor relations with the former government… ....READ MORE | 4 Comments